Lord Of The Flies Vs Alive Essay, Research Paper

Lord of the Flies and Alive!

In life we are all faced with situations tat may be difficult to deal with, but for most of us, trying to survive in hostile conditions is not one of them. In the novel The Lord of the Flies and in the movie Alive!, trying to survive in hostile conditions was a similar problem that the characters had to face in order to survive. The two setting, characters, and theme of these two works have many similarities and many differences that cause these characters to react differently towards each other and towards their situation. What the characters did and how they reacted to one another throughout their ordeal proved this.

The setting is a major issue that played an important roll in both of the literary works. The setting is what helped form the attitudes of some of the characters, and it was a guideline in what the characters had to do in order to survive. In The Lord of the Flies the boys were stranded in paradise with everything that they needed to survive. They were able to play all day all day and not worry about how they were going to survive, what they were going to eat, or even if they were going to be rescued. When the boys lost sight of rescue the society that had been created crumbled and consequently they lost the common goal that kept the boys civilized and together. This was a disastrous event because they lost hope and without hope, they became savage like. In the film Alive! the boys were all stranded in the Andes Mountains and they had to work together in order to survive. Through the blizzards, lack of food and the death of their fellow teammates the boys banded together with the common goal of rescue and survival. There was no food so the characters had to resort to cannibalism in order to survive. In our society that is the lowest form of savagery, however the need for survival is what drove these boys to do such unmentionable act. Through the hard times the boys worked together, and overcame the hardships, or died. The harsh conditions were what kept the boys together and in turn kept them alive. The setting of these two works was similar in the fact that they were stranded with no way of being rescued on their own. However, through the characters actions the setting also set boundaries and restrictions on what the boys could and could not do.

In some ways, the two stories had very similar characters. Nando and Jack had many similar characteristics, such as their sense of adventure. They both had a way of gaining power. At the beginning of the movie Alive! Antonio, the rugby’s team captain, had power over the group because of his leadership back at home, in the same way Ralph was voted chief because he was the first one to find the conch. Nando gained power by keeping the of hope of getting out of the situation that they were in by themselves, therefore decreasing fear among the men and introducing the idea of cannibalism. Jack was also concerned with food and throughout the hunting, he gained more power. This also helped to calm the boy’s fears. They could kill pigs Jack told the boys that he could protect them from any beastie that tried to attack them as long as he was in charge. These characters reacted in much of the same way to their situations, and through their actions they related to one another.

In both stories, the theme was the same, overcoming hardships in order to survive and survival of the fittest. In The Lord of the Flies, many hardships had to be overcome for the boys to survive. They were young with no adults on the island, they had no shelter from the heat, or from the rain and food was there but meat was scarce. They overcame the lack of adults through electing leaders and treating them, as they would treat an adult. They built shelters and put together a hunting party to get meat. They overcame these obstacles and throughout this, they were able to survive and eventually be rescued. In the film Alive! the characters also had to overcome some of the same obstacles. They had to have shelter, keep warm, and get food. They used what was left of the plane as shelter, and huddled together and found all the sweaters to keep warm and they did the unmentionable act of eating each other to stay alive. That is truly resorting to whatever it takes to survive. Both stories also show the theme of survival of the fittest. In The Lord of the Flies those who were considered weak by Jack were either beaten or killed. So you had to be strong in order to survive. In Alive! if you were not strong you would die from the harsh conditions or from injury that took place upon the crash. Those are the two main themes of these stories. In both works, the characters faced survival. In The Lord of the Flies, survival meant living with Jack, and his hunters, in a very hostile environment. In Alive! the weather, climate and food were the main issues that the characters had to deal with on the mountain. Both stories show and prove that the strongest will survives all odds.

The Lord of the Flies and Alive! have many similarities. They are both based on survival. They show that in order to reach your goal, which in this case was rescue, you had to have the will, and the main characters in both of these stories did have the will to survive. This was proven through the characters actions and how they reacted to one another in their situation.

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